U.va.: Most On Preferred List Qualified To Enroll Anyway

School Defends Inside Track Admissions Ploy

November 05, 1999|By The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK — Most wealthy applicants to the University of Virginia would qualify for admission without being included on the once-secret "President's List," according to statistics released by the school.

U.Va. officials acknowledged the existence of the list last week, and confirmed that in some cases they give preference to applicants whose families might give large sums of money to the university or have ties to political or university leaders.

Officials insisted then that any special consideration occurs only after admissions officers screen applications for their academic potential.

"There are a few students who, because of the benefit it might bring to the university, an offer is made," said John A. Blackburn, U.Va.'s dean of admissions. But Blackburn called the lion's share of those on the list "excellent students" and "very well prepared" for the rigors of the university.

The statistics, compiled at the request of The Virginian-Pilot, show that applicants admitted from the roster the past two years had similar academic credentials to the entering classes as a whole.

For instance, the 193 applicants offered admission from the list this year had an average SAT score of 1300, compared with 1344 for the 5,588 applicants offered admission overall.

The year before, 165 were offered admission from the list, with an average SAT of 1298, compared with 1335 overall.

Grade-point averages of those on and off the list also were not far apart: In 1999, students on the list who accepted offers to enroll had an average 3.7 GPA in high school, compared with 3.78 for the entering class as a whole. (U.Va. cautioned that not every student supplied grade-point averages, so the averages were less conclusive.)

U.Va. spokeswoman Louise Dudley said the differences that do exist can be explained in part by the greater number of out-of-state students in the class as a whole than on the President's List, which tends to comprise mostly in-state students. The out-of-state students they make offers to on average have better academic credentials, she said.

U.Va. revealed the existence of the President's List after the student newspaper printed memoranda from the school's development office to an official in President John T. Casteen III's office. The memos touted the fund-raising prospects of some applicants' families, and rated them on an alphabetical scale with a top score of "A" going to those whose parents could potentially give more than $10million.

The university said that the list of applicants recommended by development officers, members of the Board of Visitors, state legislators and others was only given to the dean of admissions in March, just before his office made final decisions on applications. It was then that Blackburn would ask for additional information - including fund-raising potential - for applicants who were on the bubble.

U.Va. has seen intense scrutiny of its admissions process since conservative groups, pointing to the lower average SAT scores of black students, accused the school of reverse discrimination earlier this year.

After board members called into question whether the university could legally defend its policies, Casteen acknowledged that the university had recently done away with a points system that had in some cases given advantages to blacks and other minorities. That seemed to satisfy the board, even though the university still uses race as a factor in judging candidates.

In a candid interview, Blackburn acknowledged that while the vast majority of students on the President's List could hold their own academically, he has occasionally admitted applicants whose connections were the primary reason for their letter of acceptance.

"Sometimes we will admit students where that particular factor is very important," said Blackburn, the dean of admissions since 1985.

Blackburn, who said he supports the university's affirmative-action policy, added that he agreed with a U.Va. official who said last week that a double standard existed in discussion of so-called "preferences."

M. Rick Turner, dean of U.Va.'s Office of African-American Affairs, had said that white students have long been given preferences in admissions, especially at a school that refused black undergraduates admission for nearly a century and a half.

Almost all the names on the President's List belong to white applicants. U.Va. also gives weight in admissions to "legacies" - people whose family attended the university - and Blackburn said that, historically, that practice "is tantamount to a racial bias for very selective colleges."